Parking woes for market regulars

- Two and four-wheelers create traffic chaos at Unit-II, govt finalises two sites for parkade

BIBHUTI BARIK

Bhubaneswar, March 18: Indiscriminate parking is causing inconvenience to people visiting the Unit-II market.

Vehicles block most of the approach roads to the shopping complex, which is also known as the Market Building, for the better part of the day. The problem aggravates during the evening hours.

The most crowded approach road is the one stretching from the petrol pump near Rajmahal flyover to the eastern tower of the shopping complex. With small shops on both sides of the stretch, which has narrowed down over the years, parked two-wheelers make it almost impossible for pedestrians to move. The situation becomes worse when the number of shoppers double up on festive occasions. Three other approach roads, including the one that runs along the air-conditioned market developed by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, is equally cluttered with vehicles.

Mrutyunjay Tripathy, a regular visitor to the market and a resident of Soubhagya Nagar, said: “Mindless parking of bikes and cars blocks the roads. We find it hard to move. Strangely, neither the civic authorities nor the traffic cops have acted against the offenders.”

The municipal corporation’s officer in charge of licensing and parking division Srimanta Mishra said: “We have designated parking areas for the Unit-II market. If there is any violation, the traffic police should initiate action against them.”

Samantarapur resident Shakti Prasanna Mohanty is also unhappy with the parking management around the market. “Often I find no space to park my vehicle at the civic body-designated parking lot behind the Market Building. I am forced to park my bike on roadside — which is not safe. They should create more parking space,” said Mohanty.

Earlier, members of the Unit-II Nagarik Parishad had raised the issue of unauthorised parking on various approach roads to the Market Building with the civic body and the police.

Joint secretary of the parishad Pradyumna Mohanty said: “We have already informed the civic body and traffic officials. They have promised a public hearing to redress our grievances. The police, corporation officials, office-bearers of the parishad and the mayor are likely to attend the meeting.”

Assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Binod Dash said: “For the past two years, we have been hearing about a multi-level parking near Rajmahal Square (a little away from the Unit-II market), but nothing has happened so far. However, checking illegal parking on inside roads is the corporation’s lookout.” He, however, said that at certain crowded places, the police have allowed roadside parking in a controlled manner.